SAN ANTONIO – – Three years ago, the weight of the world seemed to fall on Churchill High School senior Yvette Tellez.
“My dad passed away on November 28th, right after Thanksgiving, and our house actually flooded on January 1st, so New Years. And we were stuck in a hotel for almost six months,” Telles said.
Wracked with anxiety and depression, she needed someone to talk to.
School counselors were overwhelmed, so she was referred to an online counselor from UT Health’s Texas Child Health Access Through Telemedicine (TCHATT).
From her hotel room, she began talking weekly with a counselor whom Tellez calls a real lifeline.
“My father was my best friend and therefore my favorite person. And then when I found this guy, I was like, ‘Where have you been all my life?'” Tellez said, laughing.
Tellez’s mother, Isela Chamberlain, said, “They were able to help her get through it and open up again.”
Chamberlain works at LEE High School and sees how stressed the kids are.
“It can be done at their pace and time and when they need it most,” she said.
Parents like Chamberlain aren’t the only ones whose students need help.
“We have 550 students here at Northern Hills. We have a counselor and a half. Me and then we have a counselor here two or three days a week. It’s not enough to meet the needs,” Northern Hills Elementary Counselor Katie Robertson said.
This is the story with schools in Texas and even across America – a mental health crisis tied to depleted school budgets.
“It’s not just about making them happy and getting them back in class. Sometimes students have ADHD or depression or something more significant. And that’s something I can offer for free,” Robertson said.
TCHATT increases the likelihood that families will introduce their children to more extensive counseling.
“Try to make phone calls and find out about their insurance and it just stops people a lot of times. And it’s a really good way to take all of that off their plate by getting them into a system that they can start to understand,” Robertson said.
She sat down at her computer and showed KSAT how TCHATT works.
“If I’m talking to a parent and we decide it’s the right thing for their child, then what I’ll do is go in, then I just start adding information,” Robertson said. “It could be academic problems, it could be anger or violence, it could be anxiety. And very often it is. I can add documents to it or I can call them.
Appointments can be booked in just a few days.
KSAT checked with a list of local school districts, all of which confirm that they all use TCHATT or online counseling services in some way.
These districts include the following: North East ISD, Northside ISD, San Antonio ISD, South San ISD, Harlandale ISD and Somerset ISD.
Robertson also said children who need extra care can get help with medication and be referred to other therapists. A few years ago, she referred a special needs student to TCHATT.
“A few years ago we had a kid who was really struggling. And I said, “Okay, let me just call and see if this can help you.” I know the family was struggling financially as well. They managed to take her in and help him. And really, the transformation has been amazing,” Robertson said.
The series of referrals also led Tellez to an amazing therapy.
“I did TCHATT online and then I actually did Children’s Bereavement Center,” she said.
Specialized counseling helped her express her emotions through art and other hands-on therapy.
“I have everything. I lived through it all,” Tellez said, smiling.
Her overall mental health experience was so transformative that she is about to go to college to get a degree in psychology.
She wants to help others find the peace and strength she has found.
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